'Daddy' Blunkett
A
New Labour Soap
He
loved power but he loved Kimberly more
David
Blunkett's ambition was to go down in history as the most authoritarian
home secretary ever. Now, he has stepped aside to let Charles Clarke take
that accolade - all because of the woman he loved.
The
working class blind boy from Sheffield was seen by Blair as one of his top
electoral assets. But few suspected the passion that raged within his heart.
He
was so infatuated with his flirtatious American lover, Kimberly Quinn,
that he was filled with joy when she became pregnant with his child - and
he was dismayed when she wanted to stick by her husband.
Days
before the affair became public in the News of the World, he dispatched
two civil servants to a lawyer’s office where they met Kimberly and
tried to persuade her to sign a statement saying that her marriage was a
sham.
Blunkett
very publicly began a paternity suit to gain access to the child, which
presumably would put an intolerable strain on his lover's marriage.
An
unseemly media war started to spin out of control as it emerged that Kimberly
was an old fashioned 'goer' running multiple affairs.
Her
first husband quipped that when she was in her grave, she would be worrying
about whether she could be lying with somebody more interesting.
She had seduced
Blunkett with the chat up line, ‘I’ve always wondered what it
might be like to have sex with a blind man.’
Kimberly
was heavily pregnant with her second child, but she and her new husband
were adamant that they wanted to stick together. They began to hit
back at Blunkett with their own press leaks.
It
emerged that Blunkett had used his position as home secretary to push through
numerous small favours for Kimberly - first class rail tickets,calls to
the local school about nuisance boys, and crucially, a speeded up visa application
for her nanny.
Blunkett
denied the visa allegation and called a White Hall White Wash enquiry.
Tony Blair announced that he was sure the enquiry would clear Blunkett.
All were stunned when it turned up damning evidence against him in the form
of an email.
Amidst
all this, a book was published by Stephen Pollard in which Blunkett slagged
off his fellow cabinet ministers.
He
accused his New Labour predecessor a the Home Office, Jack Straw, of leaving
the Home Office in a "giant mess".
By
contrast, he praised Tory leader Michael Howard as ''The first Home Secretary
to try to reshape the culture of the department from being focused on slowing
down the increase in crime to reducing it".
But, under
Straw "things had not progressed as speedily as they should."
He
accused Tony Blair of not liking to be 'stood up to' but of tolerating 'more
from Gordon Brown than he ought'.
He said Charles
Clarke was 'soft on standards' at education, Gordon Brown was a 'bully,
John Prescott was grumpy and obsessed with being dubbed 'Two Jags', Margaret
Beckett was a timeserver, Tessa Jowell was 'weak' and Patricia Hewitt had
no strategic grasp.
And he depicted
Robin Cook as a snob who snubbed him while he was Foreign Secretary but
'wanted to know me again' when he was demoted to a lowlier job.
The home secretary, resigned on December 15th 2004, sobbing in public.
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The fascinating
personal details, along with Blunkett’s public display of emotion,
distracted attention from the real scandal - the fact Blunkett in true New
Labour fashion had blurred the lines between his public office and his private
life, using the office of State, first to run his love affair,then
to spin against his lover and her family.
